One of Bruce Langford’s favorite phrases regarding the importance of purposeful play on the basketball court is a simple in nature, and it’s all about “finding work” on the hardwood.
On Friday, in the second-half of a basketball game in which the choice to either do it or die stood was the major obstacle standing before it, his Simon Fraser Clan women’s basketball chose the former and made some history in the process.
Playing for its first-ever berth in both the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship game, and for a spot in the 64-team NCAA Div. 2 national championship bracket, a cold-shooting Clan team found some gainful employment in the construction business, building momentum during a game-defining 18-2 second-half run to top the Seattle Pacific Falcons 66-55.
The semifinal victory at Marcus Pavilion on the campus of St. Martin’s University in Lacey, Wash., propels the No. 2 seed Clan into today’s 5:15 p.m. GNAC championship final against No. 1 seed Western Washington after the Vikings made short work of Northwest Nazarene 60-49 in other semifinal.
“You can always find work on defence, but we needed to find work on offence,” Langford said of the process of bearing down with proactive hustle to start dictating the tempo of the game. “We started to look to post hard and when we did we broke their defence down and we started to make the second and third passes. And we started showing the willingness to want to take people on one-on-one.”
The 18-2 run was part of a bigger 30-12 run which featured five three-pointers and pulled the Clan from 37-36 down with 12:55 left in the contest, to up 66-49 with 2:27 left.
“We had a lot better movement in the second half,” said guard Erin Chambers who knocked down a pair of triple during the run and scored 15 of her 20 points in the second half. “We came out strong as a team, got the ball inside and hit some threes.”
SFU was a stone-cold 23.3 per cent from the field in the opening half, but a sizzling 60.7 per cent over the second half. Guard Katie Lowen got back in a shooting groove, scoring 15 points for the winners, while forward Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe had 13 points and 11 rebounds.
Katie Benson and Aubree Callen led SPU with 14 and 13 points respectively.
“I thought we had a lot of good energy in the first half and we played good defensively,” said Lowen. “We were confident and once the offence got going we just went from there and I was fortunate enough to hit some shots. Now we’re just going to re-focus, rest, stay in our routine and get ready for the game on Saturday.”MEN’S BASKETBALL
It was a quick one-and-done Friday for both the UBC Thunderbirds and the Victoria Vikes at the CIS men’s Final 8 in Ottawa.
UBC, an 89-80 loser to Acadia in the opening round, had been playing great defence down the stretch drive of the Canada West season, but were unable to get the stops they needed to overcome the Axemen.
“I thought it was one of our worst defensive games,” said UBC head coach Kevin Hanson, whose team had kept 11 of its last 12 foes under 70 points.
O’Brian Wallace, the fifth-year transfer guard, led UBC with 26 points.
UBC lost second-team CIS all-Canadian senior Doug Plumb to a suspected concussion, after Hanson said his standout was knocked out cold while scrambling to get back on defence.
Plumb was taken off the floor by stretcher and will not play today when the Birds face conference rival Victoria on the consolation side of the draw.
The Vikes were hammered 83-46 by the defending champion Carleton Ravens. Ex-Vancouver College standout Phil Scrubb scored 13 in the win for the Ravens who now face Acadia in tonight’s semifinals.
Ottawa and Lakehead meet in the other semifinal.WOMEN’S HOCKEY
The UBC Thunderbirds run at the CIS national championships in Toronto got off to a tough start after the Canada West champs dropped a 5-4 shootout decision to the Toronto Varsity Blues on Friday.
UBC is now in a must-win situation if it hopes to advance from pool play into Sunday’s national final, and that means it must get a regulation-time victory over the Montreal Carabins in its 4:30 p.m. game today.
The game went into overtime in controversial fashion.
UBC scored three times in the third period to take a 4-3 lead, but with 34 seconds remaining in regulation, the Varsity Blues crashed the net, knocked it off its supports, and then scored the tying goal.
The UBC website reports that the net became dislodged ‘Birds goalie Samantha Langford was tackled by an opposing player.

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the “X” in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.

Head of the Class 2014

Recognizing courage and commitment in high school sports. For details click here.